The US, UN and International Criminal Court are stepping up warnings against the Rafah invasion
The United States opposes an Israeli ground offensive against Rafah unless Israel provides the security of more than a million people now crammed into the city, a State Department spokesman said Monday, adding to the rejection by the Biden administration of the expected military action.
At the same time, United Nations and International Criminal Court officials took a more absolute stance against the expected Israeli invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, warning of catastrophic consequences.
So far, however, escalating international pressure on Israel to curb its military campaign appears to have had little effect; the Israeli government has repeatedly said it will send ground troops to Rafah to defeat Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on the military to draw up a plan to evacuate civilians from the crowded city to minimize casualties, but international aid groups have said evacuating so many people is unrealistic.
“We will not support any military campaign in Rafah in the future until they can properly account for the 1.1 million people who by some estimates are in Rafah today, some of whom have already been displaced, some of whom have been displaced several times are. times,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday. “We think there should be a credible plan that they can actually implement before they undertake a military campaign in Rafah.”
The White House has delivered a similar message several times in recent days. On Sunday, President Biden confirmed this position to Netanyahu during a telephone conversation.
Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, said on Monday that any raid on Rafah would jeopardize the delivery of essential aid to an area where food, water, medicine and shelter are scarce and where the most people have fled their homes. Rafah contains the only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, and that crossing is the main portal for aid.
The United Nations, he indicated, would play no role in Israel's evacuation plans.